Tokyo Skytree: The World’s Tallest Tower, By the Numbers

A view of Tokyo Skytree, the world's tallest broadcasting tower at 634 metres (2080 feet), in Tokyo in this photo taken by Kyodo on May 21, 2012. The tower opened to the public on Tuesday, with hundreds of people entering the tower and its large shopping mall.

Okay, so technically it’s merely a tower — not an actual skyscraper — but the Tokyo Skytree is now the tallest such structure in the world, at 2,080 feet. It opened to the public on Tuesday amidst much fanfare, with thousands of tourists waiting in long lines to be one of the first to ride to its dizzying observation platform. (Technically, a tower is a structure which has usable floor space for less than half its height. The world’s tallest skyscraper — and structure of any kind — is still the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which stands 2,716 feet tall.)

The new Tokyo landmark is twice as tall as the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and is surrounded by a shopping center that stands to gain an obvious tourist attraction as people clamor for 360-degree views of the city.

Tim Newcomb is a journalist based in the Pacific Northwest covering sports design and technology, culture, infrastructure and entertainment. He writes for Sports Illustrated, Popular Mechanics, TIME and more.